The Mississippi River Wants To Move

[laurennoil]

This is undoubtedly the reason why we got "The Cliff That Refuses to Be a Cliff", Tom.

[jesusnthedaisychain]

hydrological is impossible
Atchafalaya? No problem.

[raving_]

Good video, but a map with each river on it would have been nice for an illustration.

[burdizdawurdOfficial]

I want a ten hour loop: Tom Scott tries to say "Hydrologic"

[lisse]

Get the dutch involved, they'll fix it

[Olibee]

Tom: "I am in Baton Rouge, Louisiana!"
Me: "I'm so sorry."

[deldarel]

"watermodeling wasn't really a science back then"
As a dutchman I'd beg to differ

[shiftur]

Could you please make more videos with titles that look like The Onion might have written them?

[jamieb]

“The mississippi really doesn’t want to be here anymore”

*we’re not so different you and i*

[wayne]

Love the video! But, as a native Louisianian, the river is pronounced "Ah-chaff-ah-lie-uh". No worries, though. It's a really difficult Native American word. P.S. Glad to see that you're in Louisiana! I hope you enjoyed your stay!

[JohnnyAngel]

Another fun fact: A meandering river is an old river.

[leecrotty]

Tom. Do a story on how the Corp of engineers flooded all of southwestern Iowa and Missouri just to protect Louisiana from flooding.

[Eric]

Look closely (in Google maps) at the state borders between Louisiana and Mississippi and Arkansas. Originally they followed the Mississippi River. The river now follows a very different course. It has moved around *alot* in the past 200 years. Nothing as dramatic as switching to the Atchafalaya River, but caused by same natural forces that make it want to move again.

[Liggliluff]

(1:29) _> "Here, we have all these factories, all these container docks"_
We? I guess Tom Scott becomes more and more American for each video.

[TheChasingK]

I live in Baton Rouge. We have a lot of coastal erosion here in Louisiana, and people want to attribute it to climate change. However it is actually because of the river. Normally a river will change course from time to time. Because of this the Mississippi deposits all of its sediment out at sea, where normally it would build up a delta. The sea normally erodes the land here, but the land is replaced over time by the river. Now that the river cannot move all that sediment cannot build the coast back up leading to a lot of coastal erosion.

[AbigailPoirier]

Been across the Mississippi multiple times, didn't know that! Really love this series!

[admiralcapn]

We're traveling up LA-15 this summer, and I'm unreasonably excited about viewing the Old River Control Structure, which promises to be thoroughly unimpressive from car level.

[bradgt]

Sweet video. Nice to see my home, everything you said is right. The structure your referring too is a bit up river but yes it helps controls the flow of the river by diverting pressure from the river during high water. The levee system built is what controls the directions. We built a road we want the river to go, due to navigations and products coming down the river. That structure relieves the rivers so it doesn’t go and flood New Orleans, it’s created a flood basin so when opened the water has a place to go. Right down the atachafalya, in fact a bunch of years back they actually built a canal called the wax lake spillway that helps relieve pressure from the atachafalya. We have really created something else. I’ve worked on this river and inland canals to Houston for years and now a captain, and that river is a ride. Come high water you learn to just survive and take thins easy. What people don’t realize is this river is the life of America. We push million on millions on millions of tons of products up and down this river and is attaching rivers and canals to keep America moving. Without it life would probably stop for a lot of America.

[jack_]

If anybody is curious, here is the Baton Rogue sign that Tom stood in front of: 30°26'59.0"N 91°11'27.0"W

[elisam.r.]

Nearly a decade later I'm wondering if Tom ever made it to Minneapolis to witness the engineering efforts on the Mississippi's major waterfall.